A Gun in His Hand

Gun in His Hand, A (1945)

*** (out of 4)

Nice entry in MGM's Crime Does Not Pay series deals with a corrupt cop. Officer Dennis Nordell (Tom Trout) goes through the police training at the top of his class but his real goal after graduation is using this knowledge to pull off the perfect robberies. Nordell and his gang start knocking off alcohol warehouses but soon a patrolman is killed in action and his plan starts to unravel. This was the forty-six entry in the long-running series and it once again shows why this was one of the most entertaining series out there. Once again we're treated to a very good story with some good twists and nice acting. I'm not sure if fans of today's crime dramas would get too much from this series but fans of older movies certainly will. This episode had a pretty good story as seeing the cop use his knowledge to pull off the crimes was an interesting set up and the film does a nice job at closing things down. As usual, we get some nice action along the way and Trout makes for a good bad guy.

This is a very unusual installment of the Crime Does Not Pay series in that the bad guy in this one is a cop! Officer Nordell (Tom Trout) just completed his training in the police academy and you then discover that he's always been a member of organized crime! He joined the police force in order to be an inside man and help the crooks!

When Nordell is discovered by one of his fellow policemen, Nordell kills him--shooting him down with his service revolver. However, the police learn that the slug was from a police gun and begin examining the guns of all officers. Not surprisingly, Nordell switched guns to avoid detection but you know, like all the Crime Does Not Pay films, that ultimately evil will be caught and punished.

This is a decent short film, though the resolution seemed a bit too easy. Still, it is enjoyable and worth your time.

By the way, this is the second film in which Anthony Caruso appears. Caruso played great noir villains and even parodied this on the "Star Trek" episode "A Piece of the Action".

"Nordell" (Tom Trout) is your ideal policeman. Top of his class, studious and meticulous and destined to go far in the force. We know, however, that he has other plans and that he using his skills and his knowledge of internal procedures to lead a gang on some daring warehouse robberies. His colleagues are baffled until one of their number cottons on to their diversionary the strategy and is gunned down. With police efforts redoubled, can "Nordell" keep pulling the wool over their eyes? It's part of the "Crime Does Not Pay" series so jeopardy there isn't, but this is still quite a decent short drama on the ingenuity of both the criminal and the forensic expertise of the scientists. Trout is actually quite effective as the cocksure officer and though the denouement is both rushed and a bit disappointing, it at least sets up a more substantial story to illustrate it's point.

This is the story of a young man who knew what he wanted to be once he graduated from the police academy: a thief. Once Dennis Nordell becomes an officer of the law, his grand scheming falls perfectly into place. Officer Nordell walks his beat through the day and plans robberies of liquor warehouses at night. Because Officer Nordell knows the whereabouts of his fellow officers up to the minute, he can plan without fail many robberies over several weeks.

Once Nordell murders a fellow police officer during a robbery, clues start to fall into place and Nordell starts to head unknowingly into a trap. Police headquarters suspect Nordell, but leave it to Nordell to hang himself while taking charge of the investigation. Nordell complies by tampering with evidence. Nordell goes a step too far by trying to put the finger on a street thug who literally doesn't have the fingers required to leave any fingerprints.

This story plays out like a decaffeinated CSI TV show. You won't have to sit through an hour to see how the robberies get figured out, nor will you have to wade through minutes and minutes of beer and car commercials. Best of all, you won't have to watch guys with perpetual two-day beards in khaki pants solve anything.

It's very dated, but who isn't these days….7/10.

Clark Richards

It was pretty cool to see this one and a total of nearly 1 hour and 45 minutes of other short films in this series as bonus tracks on the 'DVD 'Film Noir-Bringing Darkness To Light' by Warner Bros. This is a great short about how crime doesn't pay. The police forensics in the 40's were pretty damned amazing considering that there were NO COMPUTERS.

WB is GREAT about including short subjects that would probably never see the light of day on DVD or TV. The TCM channel, owned by WB does show these MGM shorts, thank goodness!

Several of these shorts have familiar character actor faces in them including Anthony Caruso in this one who was one of the most prolific character actors and contract players in Hollywood in the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's. One of his most famous roles was in an episode of 'Star Trek' the original series in the episode 'A Piece Of The Action', where he played (surprise!) a gangster mob boss who meets Kirk and Spock and the Enterprise gang. Look up Anthony Caruso's impressive resume here on IMDb.

I collect celebrity autographs and I specialize in character actors and actresses, and I am fortunate to have Mr. Caruso's signature in my collection! No, I don't sell any of my autographs, either.